1. Field
The present invention relates to a mobile terminal and a method for controlling the operation of the mobile terminal, wherein it is possible to control operations of the mobile terminal using a stereoscopic 3D pointer in a stereoscopic 3D image displayed on the mobile terminal.
2. Background
Mobile terminals are portable devices, which can provide users with various services such as a voice calling service, a video calling service, an information input/output service, and a data storage service.
As the types of services provided by mobile terminals diversify, an increasing number of mobile terminals have been equipped with various complicated functions such as capturing photos or moving pictures, playing music files or moving image files, providing game programs, receiving broadcast programs and providing wireless internet services and have thus evolved into multimedia players.
Various novel attempts have been made in terms of hardware or software to provide more complex functionality to the mobile terminal implemented as such a multimedia player. One example is a user interface environment that enables the user to easily and conveniently search for and select a function.
A technology in which a number of images captured through cameras are combined through image processing to generate a stereoscopic 3D image has also been used recently. When this technology is applied to a mobile terminal, it is possible to generate a stereoscopic 3D image using cameras provided on the mobile terminal and to display a stereoscopic 3D image on a display of the mobile terminal.
However, when a stereoscopic 3D menu screen is implemented, it is difficult to select and activate a specific icon in the stereoscopic 3D menu screen due to the binocular disparity and apparent depth of the icon, although it is possible to arrange icons or the like in different layers at different depths in the stereoscopic 3D image.
Thus, there is a need to consider a method for controlling the operation of the mobile terminal using a stereoscopic 3D pointer, which enables the user to conveniently select a specific object and to activate a corresponding function through intuitive manipulation in a 3D space.